Thursday, September 30, 2010

So, it's been almost two weeks since we left WA and it has been nonstop craziness ever since! Many pictures to share and lots of stories to be told, but I've rarely been able to get online, much less sit down and go through it all on the laptop due to all the family visits/sightseeing opportunities along the way. Hopefully things will calm down a bit once we settle down in GA next week!

After driving through WA, OR, CA, NV, UT, WY, CO, KS, MO, IL, IN, and OH, we are now in Pittsburgh, PA for our last pit stop before heading down to our next home in GA. Man, just thinking about all of that is tiring. My goal is to go through all of the pictures from the various stops that we made and comment on our experiences...but that probably won't happen until our house is set up since I doubt the craziness is going to come to a halt anytime soon. I did, however, get a chance to go through the San Francisco pictures just now, so I guess that's something...

We loved San Francisco! In fact, I'm sure Oba would have no complaints with living there. Everywhere we went, Obadiah got love from people around us. I don't know that we've ever seen that many people dote over Oba! It was kind of ridiculous, but he soaked up every moment of it. The best part of the visit was when we met up with another Baby Loss Momma (Jennifer), but the rest of the touring was fun too. We lucked out with some beautiful weather while we were there, so we were thoroughly able to enjoy the scenery. The only thing missing was our Liv'ster -- I guess that's a given though!

Below is our San Fran trip described through pictures (click each picture for a larger view)...

Before getting to San Francisco, we decided to go through Napa Valley. Neither of us cares all that much for wine, but it was worth the stop. It was beautiful! Here is a picture taken as we were arriving in the area -- ignore the dirty windshield!

We purposely made a stop at GundlachBundschu -- a German winery recommended by my sister...

Afterwards, we stopped at another winery, but I can't remember the name...Domaine something...

We could hear Obadiah barking in the truck -- ruining the atmosphere for all of those around -- so we decided to make the visit fairly short. As we were heading out, I turned around to take one last picture and realized later that two guys posed for me. Ha.

We made our next stop at DomaineChandon. Such a beautiful landscape!

After three wineries, we decided we had better head to San Fran since we had plans of meeting Jennifer and her husband that evening (see previous post). This is as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge…

Here are some random pictures as we drove through San Fran and walked around Pier 39 that night…

I *of course* had to get a picture of this store…being a lefty and all…

After an evening on the pier, we decided to call it a night. Due to a convention going on there in the city, it ended up being next to impossible to find a hotel that had an available room – especially one that took dogs! We finally found one north of the Golden Gate Bridge, which ended up working out perfectly. We had wanted to walk the bridge the next day with Oba, so after checking out, we were just minutes from that location. Aside from the fog, it was absolutely beautiful that next morning! I still can’t get over the amount of people that stopped what they were doing to love on Oba. By the end of the day, his ego was through the roof!

After parking, we had to walk under the bridge to get to the viewing area. Oba went nuts looking around to figure out where all of the noise was coming from…talk about confused!

One of many new friends…

Caught Oba mid-yawn…

James and his doppelgänger…

As we began our walk…

More new friends for Oba…

Someone was quite pleased with himself…

Some random graffiti that caught my eye…

The closer we got to the middle of the bridge, the foggier it got…

The city in a bed of clouds…

It cleared up a little at one point…

More graffiti…

Love this one…

Right after this picture was taken, an interesting looking man came up and offered to take our picture for us. After doing so, he offered us some whiskey from his flask! Ha! We declined, but were amused by the offer.

Poor Oba…by the end of our walk, he was pooped! (You can tell by how his eyes were going off to each side…)

San Francisco is such a beautiful city!

One last set of new friends before we left…One girl even asked her mom if they could get a basset after loving on Oba, ha…

Then, of course, 2 minutes after we got in the truck, this is how we found Oba!

After walking the bridge, we had plans of stopping at Ghirardelli Square and walking around. Unfortunately, it was next to impossible to find parking, so we just drove around then headed on our way. Before we left though, I made sure to get a closer shot of Alcatraz…

As we made our way through the city, we also made sure to drive down Lombard Street. I think I would've been more comfortable driving down that windy road in our Vibe! I was a bit nervous as James made those curves in the truck…

Oh and how could we pass up driving past the Full House strip of homes? I don't know about you, but when seeing this picture, it makes me want to sing the theme song to that cheesy sitcom, ha.

After driving through that area, we drove past the Haight-Ashbury district for James (for those not familiar with it, it had a major role in the start of the hippie movement), then headed on our way towards Nevada. It was a quick tour of the city, but we enjoyed it. After grabbing In-N-Out one last time, we made plans to stop in Lake Tahoe real quick. We wanted to at least get past the Nevada border that night, but being that Lake Tahoe is one of those vacation spots that we hear so much about, we made sure to check it out! Man, what a beautiful place! I loved the quaint little towns surrounding it. We decided to walk through one and were amused by some of the shops. One of them had little bears decorating their roof…

It also had a beautiful walkway near the beach…

I obviously didn’t find the best spot to lay the camera…

As you can see, Oba isn’t as traditional with his choice of walkways…

Right before we left town, I noticed a great sandy beach off to the side. I, of course, made James pull over so we could check it out! A popular thing to do among the Baby Loss community is to write our sweet angels’ names in the sand. I had 10 or so names that came to mind, so while we were there, I made sure to take pictures. For those of you reading this, I’ll get those to you soon (I hope!)…

Here is a picture with our angels’ names altogether…

As we headed out of town, I loved how the moon looked!

After a long day of sightseeing, our next stop was going to be a hotel halfway through the state of Nevada. Hopefully I’ll be able to get on here again sometime soon and document the rest of our drive. I’m sure by now you’re done seeing pictures though (I know, I take way too many!), so I’m off to bed…

3 comments:

I love all your photos! I laughed at the pic with the caption: "James and his doppelgänger…" Reminds me of those separated at birth photos here on the 'Net.(^_^) Glad you had fun in California. Oba should be named "The Official Spokesdoggy for Pet Tourists in San Francisco." He got so much love, SF will most likely adopt him. Safe travels, you guys. (btw, i'm a lefty, too. we rule! heh.;D)

Your pictures are BEAUTIFUL, you have such an eye for pictures!!!!!!! i LOVE the one of the bridge in the clouds....it looks like we could walk across it and end up in heaven! also, the FIRST thing that came to my mind with the full house pic was the song too!! great minds think alike! i am glad you made it safely to Penn. once again, thank you so much for the stop here in ohio! i had so much fun, and now that i know the two of you like wineries, dave and i will have to treat you to one of the local wineries if you come through again! we LOVE wine....we try and hit at least a couple everytime we do a long trip, the upstate NY wines are the best...and one near Fort Lostinthewoods called "St James Winery" can i say AMAZING!!! ttyl!

Jennifer, I love it!!! I can see Oba as the Spokesdoggy...him and his big ego, ha. :) Side note: when I was younger, a friend used to say, "God made few perfect people, and the rest were right handed." ;)

Erin, thanks! I love your thoughts on the picture of the bridge! I will forever look at that picture with your comments in mind -- almost like it's our gateway to our babies. :)